


Natalis

by dorkery



Series: Sankt Mariens: Prussia, Our Lady of the Land [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 1700s, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Childhood, Family, First Meetings, Gen, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-16
Updated: 2011-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-26 03:32:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/278196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkery/pseuds/dorkery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She took him in because there was only one destiny she could accept, and it was greatness.</p><p>Part of the fem!Prussia history arc, how Prussia met Germany.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Natalis

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set in the early 1700s, when Prussia is first consolidated into a Kingdom under Frederick I.
> 
> Natalis means 'born' and is the latin root of 'natal' which means of or relating to the time or place of one's birth.
> 
> This is one possibility regarding how Prussia finds Germany, the most canonical one in this verse (so far). I may write more.
> 
> By the way, Prussia loses the bet. Cologne Cathedral completes its construction in 1880.

The crisp autumn air stung with cold. It was the sign of an early winter, and even on horseback, exercise did little to alleviate the chill that had settled in her bones. She took a slow draught of her wineskin, felt the alcohol burn down her throat in a bid for warmth. From behind, a rider approached with an amiable gait, pulling to a complete halt by her right. She cast him a brief glance.

“Oh. It’s you.”

He let out a snort, taking the proffered wineskin.

“Always forget how useless your manners are.”

“Please,” Prussia scoffed. “All the Hohenzollerns do is marry someone from your territories, as if they couldn’t trust any _one_ of your nobles enough. At this rate, we may just as well erect a whorehouse on your borders. I’m sure that’ll waste less heirs on the likes of you.”

“I’m sorry, did you say something rude and condescending? I was caught unawares by your saying _please_.”

Prussia smirked, turning her head towards Hesse for the first time and elbowing him in the side.

“Churl.”

“You’re the one insulting your host as you join in on _his_ hunt in _his_ forests.”

“No wonder it’s so unexciting and filled with useless nagging.”

“You do me injury. We are both well aware that I am one of the more indulgent of us kin.”

“Hn,” Prussia agreed noncommittally. “You’re not Berg, that’s for sure. How bloody long is that cathedral of his going to take?”

“At the rate he’s going, 200 years, I swear it.”

“Is that a wager?”

Hesse eyed Prussia suspiciously.

“The stakes?”

“Alcohol, probably. A nice big meal.”

“How dull,” he sighed melodramatically. Prussia jabbed him in the ribs, eyes narrowing.

“Loser prepares everything – sans alcohol – from scratch. From the forest. A good fat hunt from daybreak.”

“Hunting _and_ cooking in the same day? You’re going to regret this.”

“I’m going to regret not being able to paint a portrait of you preparing game with your delicate little woman-hands in 200 years.”

“Commission one of my boys, I can get you a discount.”

“I’d remark on you pocketing his fee but I’d rather express sympathy for the poor fool who’d brave your damned cold autumns for a few gold coins.”

Prussia wrapped her coat a little tighter around herself as Hesse let out a puff of air and watched it thicken and curl into white smoke. It lingered for a minute before rising and dissolving with a sudden wind that swept through the forest just then. Dried leaves rustled and crackled as they were brought away, along the ground and off of brittle branches.

“It is damned cold, isn’t it?” Hesse sighed softly lowering his eyes. “What does it mean, I wonder.”

“An earlier spring, if you’re lucky.”

“Luck,” he snorted. “Could use more luck. I wondered if the cold meant I was, I don’t know, _discontent_ or something of the like.”

Prussia looked at him for a moment before shrugging.

“It’s worth asking the elder ones. Maybe you are. But if the weather changed to suit our moods so often, Hungary would be a windy pit of fire.”

“Her again,” Hesse laughed suddenly at that, bright and hearty. “Sometimes I wonder, do you wish to marry her?”

“Watch your tongue,” Prussia narrowed her eyes, aiming a good solid kick at him that nearly sent him off his horse.

“And how does Brandenburg feel about this? I hear the fool can get quite jealous.”

“Shut _up_.”

It was impossible to stay angry too long at Hesse and soon she found herself smiling at his ineffectual teasing. They rode deeper into the thick of the forest, their hounds finally catching scent of elusive game. _Too cold winds_ , Hesse had said. They toyed with the theory of early hibernation to accompany an earlier winter but the sight of a plump boar quickly ended their discussion. Prussia enjoyed the hunt. She liked the bloodiness of it, something that broke the idleness of the peace between wars. The others often scoffed at her for such words, told her that wars were not the way of the world, but they were fools for thinking that peace was long-reigning. The day her lands would no longer be engulfed in war would be the day she wore skirts and gave her lands to a babe. Prussia scoffed. Piteous _unlikely_ thoughts.

The leaves rustled ahead and Prussia immediately raised her arquebus, taking aim.

“Wait!”

Prussia glanced at Hesse.

“God’s sake, put that thing down. It’s just the boy.”

“The boy?” Prussia lowered her arquebus, looking at the spot dubiously.

“Yes, I see him often enough. Come out, boy. No need to fear.”

From the patch of leaves that had rendered stock still, a skinny little child stepped into the light. He was wearing a tunic that was far too big for him and dragged along the ground. He had thick golden hair and watery blue eyes, thin as a trickling stream. He looked… frightened? No, he was far from frightened, even at the sight of fierce stallions and hunting dogs towering above him in a quelled bloodlust. There was timidity in him, some effeminate way he carried himself and clutched at his threadbare clothes.

Prussia felt something inside her still.

“I see him very often, come to think,” Hesse’s voice seemed faraway to her. “He doesn’t speak. The others scare him off, matrons too, kind as they are. Flighty little thing. He’s like a little animal, popping in and out as it pleases him.”

“What,” Prussia said emphatically, breaking the others away from their thoughts. “Is a little boy doing in the middle of your _forests_ , amongst a sea of wolves and boars, in nothing but a nightshirt and no _wounds_ on him?”

Hesse opened his mouth to suggest that the boy had an acute sense of survival but, piece by piece, the information Prussia gave him clicked into place and it dawned upon him. He stared at the child, wide-eyed, before swinging his gaze to Prussia who had already dismounted and strode purposefully towards the boy. He tried to call out, tell her not scare the boy, but her gaze pinned him in place where he looked as though he was about to run.

“Aren’t you cold?” Prussia asked, sizing up the child. “Do you want warmer clothes?”

He gaped up at her, properly impressed. Prussia gave an irate harrumph.

“What about food? Do you want food? Hot food. Cooked meat, none of the berries in this ice land.”

He didn’t reply. Prussia sighed sharply and, to much surprise, bent over to gather him in her arms. He struggled a little at first, eyes wide, but as she wrapped her coat around him and mounted her steed once again, he squirmed in curiosity, looking down from such height, clutching to her breast for security.

“ _What_ are you doing?” Hesse gawked.

Prussia flashed him a maniacal grin. “Fortifying my kingdom.”

\------

“ _But you have no kingdom_ ,” Prussia mocked, tossing aside the book she had been reading irately. “I fucking _know_ that, stupid shit.”

She looked around to where the child sat, eating as quickly as his little hands could manage. She was right, boy had never had hot food before. Probably suffered from terrible nutrition. The servants were busy drawing a bath for the boy who, she quietly feared, was no boy at all. He looked rather _pretty_ , dare she say it, and she knew that those looks, be it on a girl or boy, invited nothing but trouble.

 _Well, I’ll beef him or her up no problem. I’ve done well for myself. Who’s to say I can’t repeat my success story?_

“You know,” said a conspiratorial voice that had just entered. Hesse did a lot of sneaking, she noted. “Now that I see the boy under the light, he looks to me more of a girl, don’t you think? With those eyes and that hair. What say you?”

Prussia shot Hesse a look.

“He is a boy.”

“Yes, but what if-”

“He is a _boy_ ,” she spoke over him, slowly and with purpose. Hesse fell silent.

“…If he is not?”

“It is not worth deliberating hypotheticals. He is a boy.”

Hesse bit his cheek.

“Now that you have decided this quite firmly, I’ll see about clothes.”

“You do that,” Prussia said after him as he left the room.

Prussia watched the boy, slightly amused that his hunger overpowered his sense of self-preservation. The child didn’t seem aware of her in the least. _Good and bad_ , she thought. Lowering his guard. Accepting Prussia. Might accept others too. She’d have to teach the child to trust her and no one else. She thumbed her lip as she watched the way those small, dirt-crusted fingers tightened desperately around the shank of the boar they had managed to hunt on the way back, digging into the flesh like it might run away. She wondered how long the child had been on his own, how long the traces of new civilisation had been born to the German mountain ranges of Westerwald at the right bank of the Rhine. Was he a new state? A new nation altogether?

“Come for your bath now, child.”

Prussia looked up to see the boy hesitating, eyes darting around for an exit, and she quickly went to his side, a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait there,” she informed the servant. “And remember our agreement.”

“Yes, my lord.”

When they were alone, Prussia looked into the child’s eyes morosely. Once he gave her his utmost attention, she removed her hand from his shoulder and offered it to him instead. He eyed it, surprised at first, uncertain through and through. She saw him biting his lower lip and staring at his feet as though hoping he would not be expected to make a decision. She dropped her hand to her side.

“Listen. You won’t roam the forests. You won’t eat wild berries. You won’t survive on fruit and leaves. I will take you to my palace and I will feed you and clothe you and educate you, do you understand? I am giving you opportunities that old men _dream_ of, that mothers would commit murder for. I am offering something beyond that of a good life. This offer stands while I stay here in Hesse, but only for this brief duration. When I leave, I will not take you even if you crawl at my feet. You will seek your fortunes elsewhere, with lesser men. Others may know who you are… but _I_ am the one who understands you. You do not talk, but do you comprehend? Do you understand me?”

The child blinked once and closed his mouth. He nodded slowly.

Prussia offered her hand to him once again.

“The first step to greatness is cleanliness. You have a bath waiting and it is hot.”

The boy slowly got to his feet and took her hand. Satisfied, she firmly grasped his fingers and led him into an adjoining chamber. The servant from before was there and she got to her knees to help disrobe the child. Prussia watched quietly as the tunic was removed and felt her chest unclench at the sight of male genitalia. She exhaled slowly, nodding at the woman and allowing her to usher the boy away into the tub outside. As the door closed with a slight scrape, Prussia leaned against the wall and stared outside the window. There was little to fear now. He was just a sweet boy after all. Just a sweet boy.


End file.
